Don’t forget about Heritage Days in Belvidere on Sunday. There will be a big parade starting at 4pm downtown with a fabulous fireworks display at dusk. I will be out there with the family emceeing the parade. Make plans to stop by and say “Hi!” -ERIC

On Saturday night, June 30th, step outside at sunset and look around. You’ll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth’s moon with the usual craters and seas, but something’s wrong. The full moon is strangely inflated. It’s huge! You’ve just experienced the Moon-Illusion.

Sky watchers have known for thousands of years that low-hanging moons look unnaturally big. Camera’s don’t see it but human eyes do; it’s a genuine illusion.

This weekend’s full moon hangs lower in the sky than any other full moon of the year so the Moon-Illusion is going to be strong. So, what makes the moon so low? Consider the following: The sun and full moon lie on opposite sides of the sky. They are like a see-saw: when one is high, the other is low. Because the summer solstice was just last week (June 21), the sun is near its highest point in northern sky. The full moon is correspondingly low.

A series of tornadoes ripped through the Upper Midwest region of the United States in the evening of June 7, 2007. At least five different tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press, one of which tore through the Bear Paw Resort in northern Wisconsin. Despite dropping as much as fifteen centimeters (six inches) of rain in some places and baseball-size hail in others, authorities were reporting no deaths attributable to the storm system, and only a smattering of injuries, but considerable property damage in some areas.

The Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument on Landsat 7 examined the tornado damage on June 15, 2007. This natural-color image shows the area around the Wolf River and Bear Paw Resort just north of the Menominee Indian Reservation. The diagonal slash across the landscape from one of the tornadoes is quite dramatic in this full-resolution image, which discerns details as small as 28.5 meters (95 feet), including roads such as Wisconsin Route 55 and the Wolf River, a favorite whitewater river for kayakers. The wide, bare swath of destruction from the tornado is very evident here, where trees were torn down by winds, leaves stripped from their branches, or where agricultural fields outside the Reservation were flattened.

A line of thunderstorms has developed to the northwest stretching from southern Wisconsin back through northwest Illinois. With so much moisture in the atmosphere, heavy rainfall, possible up to an inch per hour, could occur with some of the thunderstorms. Along with the heavy rain, gusty winds and even small hail could occur as well. Storms will continue to move to the east/southeast through the rest of the afternoon.

Have you ever noticed how cold you feel getting out of the shower on a cold, winter night? The reason the body gets cold is because the humidity is low in the air. Even if you’ve vigorously toweled dry, the body is still evaporating moisture off the skin…and in turn, you feel cold.

But now let’s talk summer. During a hot and dry atmosphere, the water molecules on our skin can easily evaporate and it’s easy to cool down (because there are fewer water molecules in the air taking up a given space).

During a hot and humid atmosphere (like what we’re in right now) there are many water molecules in the air. Not only is our body surrounded with hot temperatures, it is surrounded by humidity! The more humidity in the air, the harder it is to evaporate water off of our skin. To compensate for this, our bodies sweat more…which in turn can cause dehydration. Sitting in front of a fan feels good to our skin because the air movement allows evaporation to occur more efficiently.

Bottom line? When it’s hot (and especially humid) we need to replenish our supply of liquids and keep cool. While we didn’t hit 100° today…or even 90° it was still tough on our bodies, especially if you were doing anything strenuous. -ERIC

On 7/7/07 musicians from all over the globe will be performing for one reason: to fight global warming. During 24 hours, across seven continents nearly 150 of the world’s top musicians will rock for a cause in Live Earth 2007. (Reminds me of “Live Aid” back int he 80s).

Other venues include Australia, China, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and the UK. If you’re really interested in going you’ll have to travel. There isn’t a concert closer than New York City…so if you want to go you’ll have to burn a lot of fossil fuels getting there. -ERIC